Lost Crown, Lost Self || Captain Palette 2 || part 2 of Cappa!AU || ON HOLD. ||

(2) Did they put two and two together? (2)

The meeting started, the bad guys and the teenager stood around as Nightmare began a speech. 

"It's been a few weeks since… that… happened. Does anyone care to fill Cross in?" He asked quietly, his glance dancing across his team. 

Horror stood up, a smile on his face. 

"You wouldn't believe it. The kin of Dream, his son, demanded to talk to Nightmare!" Horror exclaimed. "The idiot wanted to redeem him, wanted to fix him." The skeleton seemed to still be in shock, snorting at the memory. 

Cross took in the information silently, nodding. He… had no idea that Dream had a son. 

"Anyways… things went down and now we're here to discuss what to do next." Dust spoke, nudging his friend besides him. 

PJ blinked. He had no idea that these villains were so… Relaxed?... Nevertheless, he kept his guard up. 

"But.. I'm personally more intrigued by the child in our presence…" The king hummed, one of his tendril flicking in curiosity. 

"Error, why didn't you ever tell us you also had a son?" A passing glance was sent over to the destroyer, who shrugged with a frustrated expression. 

"It never came up in conversation." Error spoke bluntly as always, he turned his attention to the hemming of his sleeve. He wanted these guys to go.

Nightmare didn't respond to Error and instead turned to Paperjam, he had a few questions for the young teenager and PJ knew it. He bit down harshly on his tongues.. Just push through this. 

"So, Paperjam was it." Nightmare asked, although… it was phrased more of a sentence than a question.. 

"Yes." Paperjam's voice came out glitchy, wobbly and broken but not scared. If he lacked common sense like a certain brother of his, he would've challenged Nightmare then and there. His fist tightened slightly. 

"You're the child of Error.. Who is your other father?" Nightmare's goop never dripped… PJ suddenly felt self conscious about their blobs on their head… but he had to remind themself that they were not the same.

But the question was.. Did Palette tell them that he was the son of Ink too?... If he hadn't, they definitely saw Broomie and put two and two together… but Error was sitting right there.. He had to act quickly. 

Nonchalantly, PJ glanced around the white void. 

"We're on a need-to-know basis.. With all due respect and whatever." Paperjam felt a little ballsy saying that, he was directly sending a small jab towards the god who snapped Palette's legs, who tortured his uncle and who could kill him with a swipe.. But Nightmare's intimidating smile only grew. 

".. I like you kid. I really do. I can't wait to see what you're capable of."

That was all of that conversation. Nightmare leaned back. 

"So, Dream's little shit." Nightmare started. "How are we going to go about this?" He questioned. 

"Well, he's probably not going to come back. I mean… You did one hell of a job roughing him up!" Killer pumped his arm. "We knew you could do it, Boss!"

Nightmare sent a dirty look to Killer. 

"No thanks to you three incompetent roaches. Do you know how mocking it felt to have you imbeciles standing there gawking like children in a zoo?!" Nightmare scolded them. 

Error snickered. He also didn't really know what happened with Palette. So getting this information by memory was pretty golden. 

[...]

Meanwhile, with the Scarf Sanses's leader.. Palette was getting a rightfully deserved earful from his dad. 

"And you storm off! Do you know how worried we were to see you uncontrollably zoom off on Broomie!? You could've been badly injured!" Dream snapped, his glare intimidated the rest of his own team mates… Blue and Ink sat silently.. Not daring to interrupt Dream's angry speech… 

Palette felt a little terrified. An angry Dream was.. Hopefully.. Something he'd never see again. 

"You lied to me! You lied to Ink! You lied to yourself!-".. Dream was then cut off. 

"But you also lied dad! You hid an entire side of yourself from me! You have a brother-" Palette attempted to defend himself. 

"I had a brother, Palette! Nightmare is!..." Dream's sockets lined with golden tears… touchy subject. 

"... You hurt a lot of people by doing this Palette. I understand you had good intentions but… You can't.. Just…" The words getting caught in Dream's throat, he seemed to suffocate on the simple thought that clouded his mind. 

Palette watched the Guardian of Positivity be swallowed by sorrow. He had… no idea that… that what he did was so upsetting. Well… to be fair… When Palette did start his adventure he had no idea what he was getting into… but should he really push this?.. Maybe it was best to just sit back… let this simmer. The way Blueprint described it…The way Dream was describing it.. It was doing worse damage than any of that tar-ish water could do to him. 

Ink stood up. 

"And not to mention, Broo-"

Dream's deathly stare brought Ink down. It had pure murder intent behind it if Ink dared finish that sentence. 

"Got it! Not about Broomie, about Palette. Right." Ink spoke, sitting back down. Blue gave his friend an empathetic pat on the back. 

Palette hid his eyes beneath the brim of his hat as he looked towards the AUs that dangled above him, connected via strings. He wanted nothing more than set out on his own, but seeing how everything collapsed around him… 

Dream sighed sharply, placing his phalanges against the bridge of his nose. The migraine slowly swelling in his skull. He screwed his eye sockets shut. Stars give him strength. 

".. Anyways. Your punishment." Dream crossed his arms.. Palette raised his hat slightly, biting his tongue. Yup.. Punishment sounded about right. 

"You're going to be babysat by Reaper until I can decide what to do with you. Hopefully Goth will keep you entetertained." Dream frowned unlike Palette's hopes which raised slightly. He loved hanging around with Goth! His best friend! Could this really be considered a punishment? 

"But, you won't have access to Broomie or your roller. I'm sorry Palette, but this won't be a fun hang out with Goth like you'd think." Dream sternly muttered, his ribcage releasing a heavy breath. 

Oh.